Karl Slym wants to change the way Tata Motors makes and sells its cars. But the cars he has don’t sell; and his idea of those that will should take at least two years to hit the market
Karl Slym
Age : 50
Career : Started at Toyota as senior manager; spent more than 25 years in GM across roles and geographies, including seven years as head of GM’s India operations. Joined Tata Motors in October 2012.
Education : MSc in business administration, Stanford University
Interests : Music, Bollywood, cricket and travelling
It was October 2012. Karl Slym, the new managing director of Tata Motors, had just joined office. And he was keen to get a pulse of the organisation quickly. Slym asked Tapan Ghosh, regional manager (west) in the passenger vehicles division, to fix up a meeting with Kasturi Wasan, owner of Wasan Motors, one of the oldest and largest dealers of Tata cars in the country. The meeting was fixed at Wasan’s Tata-Fiat dealership in Chembur, Mumbai, at 5 pm. Slym walked into Wasan’s sprawling fourth floor office, overlooking the Sion-Trombay road, with two of his colleagues—Prashant Fadnavis, head of marketing services, and Ghosh. After exchanging pleasantries, Slym got down to business, “So Mr Wasan, how is it going?”
Wasan had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time and he didn’t hold back. Sales had plummeted to 225 units per month compared to an average of 900 units in 2008-09. Despite all kinds of marketing pushes—buy a Nano with a credit card, exchange your old motorcycle for a Nano—the car had remained a non-starter. It was the same story with the Manza, the Indica, the Safari and the Aria. There were hardly any footfalls in his showroom and his sales staff was demoralised.
“With these issues, I will not have enough money to even pay salaries to my staff. In fact, I have been thinking of closing this dealership because I have been making losses for the last two years,” he told Slym.
The new MD heard him out patiently. At the end of the meeting, which lasted about 90 minutes, Slym said, “No, Mr Wasan, don’t give up. Give me 90 days and I will do something. If you still think your dealership is not viable, then you are free to go.”
The Problem
Correction: This article has been updated with spelling corrections.
(This story appears in the 17 May, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)